Sunshine

Just in case there’s any confusion, this is not officially affiliated with Robin McKinley’s Sunshine. This is just the ill-conceived idea of a (probably too-intense) fan. There is an official Robin McKinley blog and there’s an official Robin McKinley recipe blog. There’s even an actual post from the authoress herself on the subject of a recipe collection for everything delicious from Sunshine. (Spoiler: There isn’t one) And thanks to the contents of that post and the diligence of a fellow reader who compiled all the baked goods to be found in Sunshine, I had myself a Julie and Julia moment. Only instead of butter I have Buttermost Limit and instead of Julia Child, I have Rae and Mel and Charlie.

It was Sunshine that got me into baking in the first place. It’s the first book I reach for when I’m sick or when it rains or pretty much any time I have a blanket and tea and a spare afternoon. And every time I blink up from the pages desperately craving pillowy cinnamon rolls, indulgently dramatic desserts or just a really well made chocolate striped cookie. Every. Single. Time.

You would think that the resulting Cinnamon Roll Crusade over Christmas break (the causalities were a dozen or so batches and hundreds of cinnamon rolls) would satisfy even the most curious mind, but foodstuffs like Triple Ginger Gingerbread and Bitter Chocolate Death still tug at my imagination until I can practically taste the sugar crash.

And if you’re here not because you’ve read and loved the book but because you know me and were curious, here’s a snapshot of Sunshine (and why you should absolutely read it): The book is a fictional first person story about a coffeehouse baker. It’s set in a reality where the most desperate patrons of black market anti-were drugs are not werewolves, but were-chickens. It’s my favorite kind of fiction, where life isn’t necessarily made better because of the fictional elements, just more complicated (the way life does). Yes, there are vampires; there is also cosmetic surgery to implant fashionable peri demon features, grotty homeless people, ultra hardy cockroaches, and a very real girl in unreal circumstances. With a healthy dollop of the warmth that can only come from freshly baked cinnamon rolls. If any of those elements appeal to you, read it. If not, sit back and enjoy the pictures.

So here I am, declaring to the intertubes (so I don’t chicken out) that I am going to try and make every food mentioned in Sunshine. This means testing, tweaking and inventing a bunch of recipes. By my count there are 54 food items. Many have delightful names, but not much else. If anyone actually ends up reading and/or following this blog, hopefully I’ll have some help. (Any ideas on what Glutton’s Grail might/should be?) If effort, sunk costs and potential public disappointment don’t prove my dedication, here’s my final gesture of good faith: I have cleaned my kitchen. Only those who have tried to cook in this kitchen and found more food on the counter than in the fridge will understand what a Herculean effort this was. The lack of a “before” picture was very, very deliberate.

So now I look like I know what I’m doing, and I (allegedly) managed to produce cinnamon rolls, but there’s a lot of technique and skill in baking and I possess frightening little of ’em. There is also bound to be some stuff lost in translation, so if anyone from the UK wants to slap some knowledge on my profoundly American lexicon, please do. Master bakers, ditto. Any and all aboard, really!

Let’s begin with The List:

Bread

Banana-Nut Honey Bread

Maple Cornbread

Oatmeal Bread

Orange-Date Tea Bread

Pear Gingerbread

Pumpernickel Bread

Rye bread

Tea Bread (Category)

Yeast Bread (Category)

Cake

Chocolate chip Layer Cake w/Butter Icing

Ginger Pound Cake

Hell’s Angelfood

Honeycake

Lemon Lechery

Marbled Brown Sugar Cake

Triple Ginger Gingerbread w/ Cream Cheese Sauce

Cookies

Brown Sugar Brownies

Butter Bombs

Buttermost Limit

Butterscotch Brownies

Cashew Turtle

Chocolate Butter Alphabet Cookies

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut

Jamdandies

Killer Zebras

Scones

Muffin

Blueberry

Bran and Corn and Oatmeal (separate or one whole muffin?)

Bran Raisin

Cranberry and Sprouted Wheat

Oatmeal Applesauce Allspice

Orange, Carrot and Oat

Pumpkin

Pastry

Apple Pie

Cherry Tarts

Chocoholica

Cinnamon Rolls as Big as Your Head

Fig Bars

Glutton’s Grail

Lemon Lust Pastry Bars

Meringumania

Sunshine’s Eschatology

Walnut Sticky Bun

Pudding

Caramel Cataclysm

Death of Marat

Indian Pudding

Rocky Road Avalanche

Savoury

All Day Breakfast

Egg and Romaine Sandwich on Pumpernickel Bread

Garlic-Rosemary Buns

Hash

Chili

Chicken Pot Pie

Tweedle Dumplings

Succotash Pudding

Anything I’m missing?

And for the record, this is just for kicks and crumbs, with all the food names from the brilliant Robin McKinley. Mrs. McKinley, if you want it (read: depending on how this all turns out), there’s a bakery box with your name on it. Just say the word.